Editing Records

Not all citation styles are created equal. The style of the site you're getting information from may not be the same as what you'll need for your paper or project. The following guide explains what changes you'll need to make and how to make them.

Editing the Title: Zotero can automatically change Sentence Case (only the first word of the title and proper nouns are capitalized) to Title Case (every major word is capitalized) if the citation style calls for it, but not the other way around. (It doesn't automatically know which words are proper nouns and which aren't.) Thus, Zotero suggests saving all titles as Sentence Case. To change the title's capitalization, right click the title of the book and select "Transform Text."

Editing the Short Title: The short title can also be transformed to title/sentence case in the same way.

Editing the Author's Name: Most style guides require that when you cite multiple works by the same author, subsequent entries in the bibliography/works cited contain "-----." instead of the author's name. The only way that Zotero will do this is if the author's name is exactly the same in all records, including punctuation. Zotero helps you out with this: it will autosuggest names you've already used as you're typing.

Editing the Place/Location: Click on the "Place" field to change state abbreviations to their two-letter versions (e.g., "Ill." to "IL") to comply with the Trinity style guide.

Editing Date: Zotero will automatically recognize months, days, and years, but not seasons. Try to get as much date information as you can for article citations; for books, you only need the year of publication.

Editing Publisher: Many library catalogs and booksellers' sites abbreviate the publisher's name in their records. Most citation styles require it to be spelled out completely. Click on the "Publisher" field to correct it, if needed.

Editing URLs: Most citation styles don't require website addresses for any items other than actual websites. If the imported record of your article or thesis/dissertation has an address in the URL field, delete it.